


Shitty Olive Branch

by jamesilver



Series: Drarry Ficlet Requests [18]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bullying, Cute, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Flying, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Panic Attacks, Triggers, at least i would call it fluff, but like not in this fic lmao harry is just trying to get draco to be friends, draco gets bullied by other ppl at hogwarts during his eighth year, i wouldn't neccessarily call it angst so its somewhere in between, the bullying is only a mention of draco getting bullied not graphic mention not on screen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28776645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamesilver/pseuds/jamesilver
Summary: REQUEST: Hey! Could you write something where in 8th year (or post hogwarts if you want) harry asks draco to go flying with him and draco accepts. but when the day comes Draco realized he hasn't been in a broom since the fiendfyre incident and gets scared but he doesn't want to tell harry that but he really want to spend time with him, please?
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Series: Drarry Ficlet Requests [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742842
Kudos: 84





	Shitty Olive Branch

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of a series of fics that I have done as requests. Check out the series for more! This fic was requested by anonymous on tumblr.

It was shaping up to be a rather lonely year.

He was required to come back to Hogwarts for his eighth year as part of his probation (although he couldn’t imagine why. If it were up to Draco, he would try and cut off all magical education of someone who he perceived as his enemy but it was probably just so they could keep a close eye on him). Unfortunately, none of his friends had come back except Pansy and she was piled under studies. They were still great friends, of course—they were practically all the other had. But even they both had to admit that they needed a break from the other’s theatrics every now and then. There were times that being drama queens went perfect together and times that it just made them both frustrated.

So Draco had taken to hanging out around the Quidditch field.

He couldn’t be inside because everywhere he went he would get some form of harassed. The only place to be inside and safe was hidden away in some empty classroom. And then that became suspicious. He had at one point considered the Room of Hidden Things but he hadn’t even made it to the hallway in front of the door when he turned back. He just couldn’t do it.

It would be more difficult later in the semester when it got too cold to be sitting outside all the time without a warming charm, but for now, it was pleasant and he would spend the afternoons and evenings either here or in the kitchens, depending on when the teams were practicing. And the only person who knew he was here was Pansy.

He was looking down at an ancient runes textbook, studying, when movement caught his eye and made him look up from the stands.

Someone was flying.

He didn’t even need to squint and try and get a good look at the face of the person. No, he just knew based on how he was flying. It was Potter.

Closing his textbook, Draco began packing up his things quickly. It would probably be wise to get out of the area before Potter spotted him and assumed he was spying on him or up to something. Draco thought _he_ was suspicious, but Potter was downright paranoid. Although, who could blame him, after all that he had been through. He supposed it was something they had in common—one of the many things they had in common that it appeared only Draco was able to see.

He stood, picking up the last of things and starting to walk away when Potter swooped in directly over the stand and then came to circle before stopping to hover. Just behind Draco’s back.

He took a deep breath. “I’m not spying on you, Potter, I was just studying.”

Potter gave no response, so Draco finally turned around. And there was Harry Potter, sitting on his broom, but holding a second broom in one of his hands.

“You know, I was thinking,” Harry began. “It’s kind of a shame neither of us are on our house teams anymore. I’m pretty sure you and I have some kind of Quidditch rivalry to settle.” He extended the broom. “Maybe once and for all?”

Draco didn’t know what was happening. “Are you challenging me to a seeker’s game, Potter?”

Harry shrugged. “If that’s what you want. Seeker’s game would be nice. But we could just fly around. I don’t think either of us every really got to have fun and show off while we were busy trying to find the snitch.”

Suspicious, Draco narrowed his eyes. “What is this, Potter?”

“It’s an olive branch, Draco.”

A moment passed and Draco stepped forward, taking the offered broom in his hand and setting his things back down in the stands. “Is it jinxed?”

“Ha, ha, very funny.” But Potter was smiling. “Now you better get on that broom if you want to catch me,” Harry said before flying off.

Draco got on the broom and gave chase and soon they were far from the Quidditch field, racing away and off Hogwarts grounds. Eventually, Harry slowed and hovered in place, long stretches above the ground and Draco was able to catch up.

“This is hardly fair, Potter. This thing is barely fit to fly and you and your firebolt—”

Harry laughed, but it was cut off just as Draco’s broom began to drop.

After it seemed to stabilize after a moment, they both silently decided it was time to land, the broom giving a scary couple of drops on the way down.

“See, I knew it was jinxed,” Draco said once they landed.

“No, really, it’s not, I promise.” Harry set his firebolt down and walked over to Draco. “Here, let me try it.”

Draco gladly offered him the broom and Harry climbed on, intending to fly around in circles a few moments, but he wasn’t able to get off the ground for more than a few seconds.

Draco crossed his arms. “Shitty olive branch.”

At that, Harry began laughing and it was hard and genuine and contagious.

After they laughed for a few minutes, Harry wiped at his face, still smiling. “Fuck, sorry. I grabbed it from the broom stores that Gryffindor uses. Thought it would be fine.”

“Oh, now are you going to tell me that faulty brooms must be why your precious Gryffindors lose?”

“Shut it,” Harry laughed. Then, he sighed. “Well, I guess we’ll have to fly back on mine. It’s kind of too far to walk.”

He climbed aboard the firebolt and held out a hand to Draco. Hovering there. Just like—

No, Draco could do it. It would be fine.

He took Potter’s hand and swung onto the broom behind him and Harry took off.

It took less than a minute for Draco to not be able to breathe. Less than thirty seconds more for Potter to notice.

He landed softly, pulling Draco off of the broom.

“Hey, hey,” Harry sat Draco down on the ground, crouching in front of him. “It’s okay. Everything is fine. You’ve got to breathe, Draco, put your head between your knees.” He guided Draco’s head down between his knees and guided him to breathe in and out along with Harry.

“…good, good, deep breath in—you’re safe, you’re fine—and then nice and slow deep breath out—the war is over, You Know Who is dead, you are safe—deep breath in…”

Eventually, Draco was able to breathe and he looked up at Harry, knowing his face was red and wrecked with tears.

“I’ve never been able to stop panicking that quickly. How did you do that?”

Harry moved to sit down next to Draco, shrugging. “I think it helps when you have someone not panicking to guide you through it. Hermione taught me some breathing exercises she read about and we tried a million things she’d researched until I could learn to manage them on my own.”

Draco avoided Harry’s eyes, voice quiet. “You have panic attacks, too?”

“Not as often anymore. Just after the war ended, it was really bad. I mean, multiple a day. Now I’m down to three or four a week. And it feels…terrible that I still have them that often, but I can deal with them better and anticipate them now and I’m confident that they’ll continue to get less and less frequent as time goes on. And I keep working on things.”

“It was just…it was the…” He took a deep breath, knowing Harry was opening his mouth to say he didn’t have to tell him. “Fiendfyre,” he finished.

Harry nodded, knowing he didn’t have to say anything for Draco to know he understood.

“Well, if you’re feeling better, we should probably get walking. At this point, we’re not getting back until well after curfew and I think it would be wise if we were found together so you don’t get into an unnecessary amount of trouble when this was my fault, really.”

“Walking?”

Standing up, Harry was brushing off his clothes of dirt and grass. “Well, yeah, what did you think I was going to do? Make you get back on the broom with me? Cmon, up, let’s go.”

Draco laughed a little as he stood and the two of them began walking.

“But hey,” Harry started. “This gives us a better opportunity to talk, right?”

Draco looked at Harry from the side. “Why would you want to talk?”

“Damn, Draco, how much clearer can I make it? I want to make things right between us. Possibly even be…” There was a very long hesitation before Harry settled on “friends.”

“…Friends?”

Harry smiled and it was wide and bright and clearly nervous. “Or we could just skip friends.”

“I’m…not sure I understand.”

“That’s okay, we can just pretend I didn’t say that.” Harry began walking faster.

“No, wait, what did you mean?” Draco ran a little to catch up with him, finding Harry blushing and sputtering.

“It’s nothing,” he said. “We can, uh. We can talk about it later?”

Hesitant, Draco said, “Sure.”

“Great, want to meet me in the kitchens tomorrow night for dinner?”

“Um…sure?”

“Wonderful.” Harry smiled and Draco found himself…smiling back.

**Author's Note:**

> the fact that harry said “you know who” instead of voldemort because he sensed it might make draco freak out more and he’s already in the middle of a panic attack i—aaah!!!
> 
> ___
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!! Please feel free to leave a comment and/ or message me on [ tumblr ](https://www.shelvesuponshelves.tumblr.com)
> 
> I am also currently taking ficlet requests (like this one) on [ tumblr ](https://www.shelvesuponshelves.tumblr.com)


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